Advisory Services In Action

Helping SME Clients Overcome Business Isolation and Make Better Decisions

Running a small or medium-sized business can be a lonely activity.

Many SME owners do not have a long history in their particular type of business and may not be aware of all the support, information and resources available to them.

Industry associations, chambers of commerce, government business initiatives and other business groups can all play an important role in providing information, ideas and contacts.

Large organisations generally have access to extensive professional networks and internal expertise. An SME owner, particularly someone who has previously worked within a large company or government organisation, can suddenly find themselves without these readily available sources of information and support.

This is one of the reasons why ADVISORY SERVICES delivered by accounting, bookkeeping and business advisory firms can be so valuable.

SMEs Don't Always Know What They Need to Know

The challenge for SME owners is not simply finding an answer to a question.

Sometimes they know they need information but don't know where to find it.

At other times, they may not even realise that there is an issue they should be considering until someone brings it to their attention.

This is where a trusted professional adviser can make a significant difference.

ADVISORY SERVICES enable SME owners and managers to identify a professional person with sound knowledge of business operations who can listen to them, discuss their concerns, provide practical business advice and help answer the many "WHAT IF?" QUESTIONS that arise during the year.

For accounting, bookkeeping and business advisory firms, this creates an opportunity to move beyond historical financial reporting and become more actively involved in helping clients improve their businesses.

Advisory Services In Action

During August, we highlighted three practical areas in which accounting, bookkeeping and business advisory firms can deliver meaningful advisory services to SME clients:

Effective Debtors Management: Helping SMEs maintain Debtors Days Outstanding at their stated trading terms.

Trades Industry Charge-Out Rates: Helping trades businesses establish appropriate charge-out rates to assist in generating their targeted profit.

Chief Financial Officer Services: Enabling advisers to deliver a wide range of business insights to SMEs.

As we enter spring — traditionally a time of renewal and enthusiasm — this is an ideal opportunity to consider:

How can your firm deliver renewal, enthusiasm and better business outcomes to your SME clients and prospects during the remainder of 2026?

A Critical System for SME Success

For many SMEs, making a sale is only the beginning.

When products or services are supplied on credit, the business must also ensure that customers pay within the agreed trading terms.

Without an effective DEBTORS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, profitable sales can quickly become a cash flow problem.

This creates an important advisory opportunity for accountants, bookkeepers and business advisors.

SMEs need more than historical financial reporting. They need practical guidance to establish systems that protect cash flow, assess customer credit, monitor outstanding accounts and take appropriate action when payments become overdue.

An effective SME Debtors Management System, such as the system developed by ESS BIZTOOLS, can provide the structure required to improve the management of debtors.

Australia's poor payment-time performance has previously attracted significant criticism. Former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell described Australia's late-payment problem as a "national disgrace."

This highlights an important service professional advisers can deliver to SMEs offering credit:

Help clients maintain Debtors Days Outstanding as close as possible to their stated trading terms.

This is not simply a bookkeeping issue. It can directly affect cash flow, working capital requirements and the overall financial health of the business.

The special promotion for the SME Debtors Systems Manual is still available.

FIND OUT MORE AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

Are Your Trades Industry Clients Charging Enough To Generate Their Targeted Profit?

A trades business can have plenty of work and still fail to achieve the owner's targeted profit.

One possible cause is very simple:

The business may not be charging enough.

Charge-out rates should not simply be based on what competitors are charging.

They should reflect the actual financial and operational circumstances of the individual trades business, including:

✅ labour costs and on-costs;
✅ available chargeable hours;
✅ expected productivity percentage;
✅ overhead expenses;
✅ markup on materials and purchases; and
✅ the owner's targeted profit.

This creates a practical advisory opportunity for accountants, bookkeepers and business advisors — but the advisory process should not stop once the original charge-out rate has been calculated.

Monitor Performance Throughout the Year

Actual chargeable hours and productivity should be monitored each month and compared with the assumptions used in the original calculation.

Management should regularly ask:

❓ Are team members achieving their targeted chargeable hours?
❓ Is actual productivity consistent with the original assumptions?
❓ Are overhead expenses in line with the original estimates?
❓ Is the expected markup on materials being achieved?
❓ Are the current charge-out rates adequate to achieve the profitability target for the year?

Where significant variations occur in productivity, overhead expenses, labour costs or markup on purchases, a revised charge-out rate calculation can be prepared.

Importantly, this enables management to adjust charge-out rates one or more times during the year in an attempt to still achieve the overall profitability target.

Businesses that do not undertake this internal review monthly — or at least quarterly — can lose the opportunity to correct their financial performance during the year.

It is far too late to conduct a post-mortem after 30 June and discover that the assumptions made at the beginning of the year did not eventuate.

This is one of the prime benefits of accountants, bookkeepers and business advisors supplying advisory services throughout the year.

Your client has the opportunity to identify variations, reconsider assumptions and take corrective action while there is still time to influence the year's financial result.

The special promotion for the Trades Industry Charge-Out Rates Calculator is still available.

FIND OUT MORE AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

Delivering a Wide Range of Business Insights to SMEs

Owners and managers of SMEs encounter important business issues virtually every day.

In a larger organisation, the CEO can normally turn to an in-house Chief Financial Officer for financial analysis, commercial input and advice.

Most SMEs, however, do not have a commercially experienced accountant available internally to assist when important financial and operational questions arise.

This creates a significant opportunity for accountants, bookkeepers and business advisors to provide Virtual Chief Financial Officer Services to SME clients.

A Virtual CFO can become a virtual member of the SME's Senior Leadership Team.

The emphasis shifts from simply reporting what has already happened to helping management understand:

❓ What could happen next?
❓ What do the numbers mean?
❓ What are the risks and opportunities?
❓ What action should be taken now?

This is very different from waiting until many months later, after 30 June, to identify issues that could have been addressed during the year.

Virtual CFO Services can provide SME owners with regular financial and operational insights that support better-informed management decisions.

Modern technology, accounting software and communication systems make it increasingly practical for accounting, bookkeeping and business advisory firms to provide this level of ADVISORY SUPPORT to SMEs.

Subscribers to the ESS BIZTOOLS Chief Financial Officer Services Package receive a wide range of resources designed to assist firms in developing and delivering a Virtual CFO Service.

FIND OUT MORE AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

From Compliance To Proactive Advisory Services

These three examples demonstrate the practical role accounting, bookkeeping and business advisory firms can play in helping SME clients.

Effective Debtors Management can help protect cash flow.

Trades Industry Charge-Out Rate reviews can help businesses work towards their profit targets.

Virtual CFO Services can give SME owners access to ongoing financial and commercial insights that they might otherwise not have available.

Most importantly, these services help overcome one of the fundamental challenges facing SME owners:

They don't have to make every important business decision on their own.

A trusted accountant, bookkeeper or business advisor can become an important sounding board, adviser and ally — helping clients identify issues, understand their options and take action throughout the year.

That is ADVISORY SERVICES IN ACTION.

Special 25% Discount Offer

The special 25% discount is still available on selected ESS BIZTOOLS packages.

You can subscribe to individual products on a stand-alone basis, or access a broader range of advisory resources through our "Big 3" Packages:

Starter Package: Practical resources to help firms commence and expand the delivery of business advisory services to SME clients.

Advanced Package: A comprehensive range of systems, resources, training and tools to assist firms in delivering ongoing business advisory services.

Financial Forecasting Package: Resources to assist with budgets, cash flow forecasts, projected Balance Sheets, KPIs, rolling financial forecasts and forward-looking financial management.

FIND OUT MORE AND SUBSCRIBE HERE

Make Spring A Time Of Renewal For Your SME Clients

As we enter spring, now is an ideal time to consider how your firm can expand the advisory support it provides to SME clients.

Which clients could benefit from better Debtors Management?

Which trades clients should review their charge-out rates?

Which SME clients would value regular Virtual CFO support and business insights?

These conversations can create new opportunities for your clients — and new advisory service opportunities for your firm.

Want to know more?

Visit www.essbiztools.com.au.

If you would like to have a discussion about how this concept of virtual CFO services can be supplied by Australian accounting firms please ring our Managing Director, Peter Towers, on 0418 190 181 and we will arrange a complimentary 30-minute Zoom meeting to discuss your firm’s position and to give you our advice.

We believe that this is the blueprint for the delivery of an enhanced range of services by Australian Accounting and Bookkeeping firms to assist SME businesses to add value to their businesses and to assist accountants and bookkeepers not only to attract but to retain outstanding talent who want to be involved in the delivery of “real accounting services”.

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